On Convocation Day (22 November), SB, as Chancellor of
his deemed University (which is funded by contributions by his devotees and SSO funds),
welcomed the President of India, Dr Kalam, who gave a speech to the staff and students. In
this address, the distinguished guest politely praised the Institute of Higher Learning,
its emphasis on human values, and the "divine environment" created by SB for his
charitable works.

President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

The President also spoke at greater length about his own
vision and his quest for a fully developed India, to which he expected the University's
graduates to contribute. He gave a detailed description of his own contribution, as a
leading nuclear scientist, to the design and development of "certain missile
systems" from 1982 to 1992 and his sense of national achievement when the 1998
nuclear tests took place. As well as highlighting India's need for greater economic and
political power and the need for progress in education, health, and technology, Kalam
offered his view that India also needs to aim at 70% self-reliance in defense capability
within a decade.

President Kalam, a Muslim, made no specific references in
his speech to the alleged Avatarhood of SB. Instead, he referred to SB much more
objectively as a "Guru" and a "divine personality who has been
transformed from religion to spiritualism by Thapas". (One wonders what SB and the
SSO hierarchy thought about that description.) Kalam also referred to other Indian
spiritual personalities, including the Abbot of Tawang Monastery and his (equally) "divine
message": "when you remove "I" and "ME" from your mind,
you will eliminate ego".

In fact, the speech by the illustrious politician and
scientist contained a thoughtful and generous sprinkling of uses of this positive but also
fuzzy and ambiguous adjective "divine". Since this word can mean
"of, from, or like God; devoted to God", according to the The New Oxford
Dictionary of English, a whole range of different concepts can be labeled
"divine". Therefore, it would not be justified to assume automatically
(as most devotees probably will) that the President's liberal use of this word in
connection with SB and his environment indicates his recognition of SB's Avatarhood.

It is not surprising that the conveniently wide semantic
range of this word (of which most devotees seem blissfully unaware) makes it particularly
attractive to the SSO and its branches in many countries in their current publicity
references to SB. For them, the word 'divine' is especially useful, in today's spiritually
sophisticated and competitive world, to continue to suggest SB's 'Divinity' to devotees
while replacing (especially for non-Hindu audiences) previous more specific and confident
assertions of SB's exclusively "Divine" nature and "Divine
powers". Therefore, "divine message", "divine environment", and
"divine mission" (as used by the President) and all uses of 'divine' with
reference to SB will, increasingly, be meant and interpreted in very different ways: by
SB, the SSO, and unconditional devotees of the alleged Avatar, on the one hand, and, on
the other, by President Kalam and most other people.

1. There are two large official SB websites which report
(like the official SSO magazines and books), in their translated and edited form, most
Discourses by SB (including the muddled ones). As far as I can see, neither of these
websites has yet considered the President of India's sophisticated and interesting (but
not obsequious) speech sufficiently important to print a full copy for
devotees to read. Instead, as a perfect proof of the point I made above, in the few lines
of an inadequate report of the President's speech, one of the official websites proudly
and predictably quotes the "divine personality " phrase used by Dr Kalam - but
not the rest of his description (quoted above)!

If official SB websites fail to report adequately on this
important event of 22 November by not allowing their readers the opportunity to read
for themselves Dr Kalam's eloquent and respectful words, intelligent readers' and
observers' concerns about the content of these official websites will only increase. Such
concerns will be further increased by the reproduction on that same official website within
a day or so of publication of a surprisingly bland and outdated introduction to SB in
the prestigious New York Times (1 December 2002), which will attract many
dissenting views from American and other readers.

[I will amend this observation if I become aware that the
FULL text of Dr Kalam's speech is printed on one of the two official websites.]